Time Machine Chefs, a show that promises/threatens to allow its contestants "to be a chef in 1416 A.D., or to cook in a medieval castle for kings and queens during the Tudor era," is coming to ABC August 16. The show is the latest ABC project in the food arena: with The Chew premiering last year and the Anthony Bourdain/Nigella Lawson competition series The Taste coming this fall.

And they're pulling out big names to do so: the contestants participating in this chronological journey are chefs Art Smith, Chris Cosentino (both of whom are also on this season of Top Chef Masters, premiering on July 25th), Jill Davie and Ilan Hall. The judges are Los Angeles chef and cookbook author Nancy Silverton, New York professional culinary technowizard Dave Arnold, and London chef/cookbook author Silvena Rowe, who will select one of the contestants to be crowned "The Greatest Chef in History." A teaser of the pilot...includes a Tudor-era rotisserie system that is powered by tiny dogs in hamster wheels.

But forget about the Time Machine. Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson????????

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Just found out about another show on the Game Show Network (I never knew there WAS such a network until just now). Here you go:

GSN (formerly the Game Show Network) is launching a new series called Beat the Chefs. Sadly it's not a bloody, bare-knuckled Fight Club-style battle between chefs, instead it's just a show in which "amateur home cooks pit their recipes and their cooking skills against professional chefs." The professional chefs in this case are: Beau MacMillan (chef of Sanctuary in Phoenix), Antonia Lofaso (former Top Chef cheftestapant) and Jeff Henderson (probably most well known from Food Network's The Chef Jeff Project).

The show will be hosted by Matt Rogers, supposedly a finalist on the third season of American Idol. The judges will be "renowned food and travel journalist" Brad A. Johnson and blogger Christy Jordan. They'll be joined by guest judges including actor Eric Roberts; television personality Cristina Ferrare; author Julie Powell, and Melissa Rycroft, a finalist from Dancing with the Stars. According to the press release, Beat the Chefs is "an hour-long show, in which everyday people who love to cook set out to prove that their family recipes are worth prize money and bragging rights."

Don't think we'll see Mario anywhere near that one, either.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

But forget about the Time Machine. Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson????????

Jenise that got my interest, so a quick google turned up

Produced by Kinetic Content, The Taste will be hosted by no-holds-barred chef Anthony Bourdain and British food star Nigella Lawson. Four culinary experts will each mentor a team of competing pro and amateur cooks as they vie to turn out the tastiest dish. The groups will face team and individual challenges through elimination rounds. ABC has ordered 8 episodes from Seven One International, the international sales arm of Red Arrow Entertainment Group which backs Santa Monica-based Kinetic. In June, the network posted a casting notice for the then-untitled show saying it was on a “nationwide search for all types of cooks from all backgrounds with range of cooking styles.” Bourdain is also readying a new weekend program for CNN that he’ll host in 2013.

Not nearly as exciting as where my imagination was taking me! Just more of the same old by the sound of it

After reading years ago a book that I think was entitled "Tales of The Table" History of Western Cuisine I honestly would not like to sample any of the medieval dishes. I don't think that the Elizabethian dishes were too palatable either. Doing modern cuisine under those conditions doesn't make sense and who would want to taste the ungodly dishes of the period! Think fowl that has been hung for a week or so before being cleaned!

I love the life I live and live the life I love*, and as Mark Twain said, " Always do well it will gratify the few and astonish the rest".